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I was a fan of PG editorial cartoonist Rob Rogers before Newsweek ever reprinted him. While hyperbole increases readership, most readers don't appreciate satire.
The Aug. 24 cartoon "Middle East Peace Negotiations 2012" was inappropriate. Misleadingly drawing the elected Israeli prime minister with a similar expression and poster as the malevolent Iranian president appeared to show a nonexistent equivalence between them. Note the fundamental asymmetry: Israel doesn't seek Iran's elimination; Iran seeks Israel's.
The Jewish state has never acted offensively against others. At no time has Israel's leader ever spouted Nazi-like threats to annihilate an entire country. Nor has Israel ever done anything other than: beget Nobel Prize winners, create programs for Jews and Arabs to co-exist, help disaster victims worldwide, lead in civil rights and spend money on defensive inventions like Iron Dome to stop missiles aimed at civilian targets, while Israel retaliates at dangerous militants.
No one truly knows if Israel has nuclear capability because it's never threatened to use any in the time it's allegedly had such. Iran has no record of restraint. Its history is rife with fomenting hysteria, openly backing terrorists and trumpeting plans to eradicate all Western societies/Judeo-Christian beliefs.
While intelligent subscribers appreciate irony, I fear others grasping at opportunities to bolster prejudices. Hate can facilitate latching onto apparent similarity to unjustly vilify a country that just wants to be left alone to contribute productively and not bother anyone. What would cartoonists say about a 1938 drawing of Hitler and Churchill holding "Death to England" and "Death to Germany" signs?
JEFF POLLOCK
Squirrel Hill
First Published August 31, 2012 12:00 am
